An oil-drilling rig is seen near Kennedy, Texas. U.S. oil output is surging so fast that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest producer.

The oil production of the United States is on a sharp upward climb, and that should please anyone who is rooting for American energy independence.

That won't happen in the next year or two, but the experts predict that within the next decade, the nation's oil imports could decrease by half.

Right now, the U.S. is producing about 10.9 million barrels of crude and other hydrocarbons - representing a 7 percent increase from last year until this year.That is strong growth that even the experts didn't foresee.

"Five years ago, if I or anyone had predicted today's production growth, people would have thought we were crazy," said Jim Burkhard, head of oil markets research at IHS CERA, an energy consulting firm.

The recent growth in America's oil production has placed the U.S. in the running for worldwide leader, a distinction that would have us pass Saudi Arabia and Russia, which have led the world for a decade.

The current upward trend is likely to continue.

The U.S. government predicts that the figure for next year will be 11.4 million barrels a day, just less than Saudi Arabia's 11.6 million barrels.

The numbers for production are strong and increasing. But they aren't anywhere close to what America uses just yet. That sizeable figure is about 18.7 million barrels a day.

But with the strong growth we have seen and many expect to continue, the gap between what we use and what we produce will steadily decrease.

That is good news for a nation that depends for much of its energy imports on nations that despise us and on regions of the world that are politically unstable.The increase in domestic production is not enough to make a dent in the world market, which is the largest determining factor behind retail gas prices.

But if the trends continue, the United States could become less dependent on foreign oil. That decreased dependency should eventually make U.S. gas prices more stable.

The most important gain from these trends, though, is that the U.S. will have less at stake in volatile world conditions such as instability and conflict in the Middle East.

The United States will not be independent of the world energy market anytime soon. But it is good to see an increased domestic production fueling a healthy trend away from foreign oil and toward the oil that's produced right here in the Gulf of Mexico and across the U.S.

---The Houma (La.) Courier

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Another View: Increased oil production will help U.S. shift energy strategy

The oil production of the United States is on a sharp upward climb, and that should please anyone who is rooting for American energy independence.That won't happen in the next year or two, but the